Category Archives: performance

October 19, 2021 · 7:46 pm

Presenting the Portuguese Burghers of Sri Lanka: Today and Yesterday

Earl Barthelot, in Ceylon Digest, 22 February 2020, where the title reads “The Portuguese Burghers of Ceylon”

Sri Lanka is well known for its diversity with over 22 numerically small communities and majority communities such as Sinhalese, Tamils and Muslims. Burgher community is one of the numerically small communities. Large proportions of the Burghers do live in the Batticaloa District and a small proportion live both in Trincomalee and Ampara District. At the same time there are Portuguese Burghers living in all parts of the country in small numbers.

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October 14, 2021 · 1:14 pm

The Smuggling Networks & Wherewithal of VVT: A Key Factor in the Rise to Power of the LTTE

Jane Russell and Michael Roberts in Interaction

ONE

“Once, while waiting for a CTB bus at Kurumbacciddy Junction in 1974, I saw a blackboard advertising a lecture by the then proto-LTTE which showed speedboats pulling the Jaffna peninsula across the Palk Straits and joining it to Tamil Nadu.”[1]

DEAR JANE, WHEN precisely in 1974?

Yours is an intriguing piece of ethnography … The Tamil New Tigers were a tiny group then[2]…. and the ISSUE IS: who had the vision/imagination to formulate this prospect and/or this propaganda line? KP? Pirapaharan? …………………….. michael

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October 12, 2021 · 1:10 pm

Upali Wijewardene and the Birth Pangs of THE ISLAND

– Vijitha Yapa – who was the Founder Editor of THE ISLAND

The person at the other end of the phone calling from Nallur was very angry. “Mr Editor, you have killed me in your paper today”. I did not ask him where he was speaking from, as he may treat it as an insult. I did not know what he was speaking about and asked what story he was referring to and after listening to him, told  him to call me back in half an hour. There were no ubiquitous  mobile phones at that time nor easy access to telephones in the eighties.

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October 12, 2021 · 12:53 pm

Resplendent University of Ceylon Cricket Squad – early 1960s

AN OLD NEWS ITEM

Former members of the University of Ceylon ‘62/63 will gather at the NCC on the morning of March 23 to celebrate their winning the Sara Trophy 50 years ago. Their feat has never been achieved by any other university team. In spite of the heavy burden of studies, they had to contend with, they were able to excel in their chosen sport to win the Sara Trophyin the 1962/63 season. The team consisted of a very talented group of youngsters who were not at all overawed by the might of the opposition, sporting All Ceylon players of that era. They, in their youthful exuberance, overcame all odds in capturing the title. Their conduct off the field was exemplary. They were gentlemen to the core in their behaviour.

Though presented to Thuppahi as the 1962/63 squad, Buddy Reid has sent this CORRECTION:  “Hello Michael, There is an error. The photo is of the previous year 1961/62 with Brendon Guneratne as captain…… Buddy.”

And Voila! Thuppahi found this snap: https://www.dailynews.lk/2019/11/22/tc/203493/only-captain-lead-uni-win-sara-trophy

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October 11, 2021 · 1:53 am

Child Soldiers in the LTTE, 2009 …. Eelam War IV

Matt Wade, in The Sydney Morning Herald, 5 May 2009, …. where the title runs thus “Kill or be killed: 11-year-olds forced to fight for Tamil Tigers”

IT IS hard to imagine Christine* in combat. But the diminutive 14-year-old with a cheeky smile and dancing eyes knows how to handle a Kalashnikov and detonate grenades. A Tamil speaker from northern Sri Lanka, Christine says she was abducted by Tamil Tiger cadres in March and forced to undergo military training. She performed drills using dummy weapons in preparation for battle and, as with many female recruits, her hair was cut short.

  No place for a child … (left) Young fighters of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam in Sri Lanka, and (right) a 14-year old conscript at the Kegalle district centre.CREDIT:AP/GEMUNU AMARASINGHE/MATT WADE

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October 10, 2021 · 8:22 pm

In Appreciation of Susil Sirivardhana’s Journey with the Underprivileged

Merril Gunaratne, in The Island, 10 October 2021, where the title is as follows “Susil Sirivardana: A Journey with the Have-nots”

Many articles extolling the virtues, integrity, erudition, intellectual brilliance and simplicity of Susil have flooded the print media upon his demise. We have to laud those who wrote in such a vein, and yet express sorrow that this country and many political establishments had abjectly failed to fully tap the unique talents of such a man for the benefit of Sri Lanka.

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October 10, 2021 · 7:36 pm

Revd Ernest Poruthota in Q and A on His Life’s Work

Avishka Mario Senewiratne in Q and A with Fr Poruthota (1931-2020) ………… Interview in  May 2018 and originally published in the Messenger, May, 27, 2018. 

Today the Messenger carries a very special and exclusive interview with one of the most senior and popular priests in the Archdiocese of Colombo, Rev. Fr. Ernest Poruthota. Since his ordination in 1957, Fr. Poruthota has served in ten parishes in different parts of the Archdiocese.  As Asst. Parish Priest in Kotahena (1957-59), Moratuwa (1959-60), Pamunugama (1960), Dehiwala (1960-62) and Parish Priest in Dehiyagatha (1962-66), Kelaniya (1967-74), Kalamulla (1974-82), Kotte (1982-87), Wattala (1991-1997), Dehiwala (1997-2004), Kirimatiyagara (2004-2011). Apart from Parishes he has served as the Chaplain of lay Apostolate (1966-67), Director PMS (1971-74), Chaplain YCW, CWM (1983-87), Dean of Colombo (1987-91).

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October 9, 2021 · 6:37 pm

Waltzing Matilda in Kriol … in the Northern Territory, Australia

Waltzing Matilda sung in Kriol, a mixture of local aboriginal dialect, pidgin English and a smidgen of Chinese…..  http://www.youtube.com/watch_popup?v=WgLtzD6JxcA&vq=medium

BACKGROUND:  note the spatial distribution of the related indigenous Kriol languages … https://www.2m.com.au/blog/australian-kriol-languages/… 

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October 8, 2021 · 11:44 pm

Split in Half and Still Flying ! A Miracle Flying Fortress in 1943

The Tale of a Flying Fortress bomber that continued its mission despite being cut into two halves by a collision 

In 1943 a mid-air collision on February 1, 1943, between a B-17 and a German fighter over the Tunis dock area, became the subject of one of the most famous photographs of WW II.

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October 7, 2021 · 5:50 pm

Vanni Hope’s Spreading Alms: Dry Ration Distributions Across Lanka

DEAR FRIENDS,  RELATIVES AND WELL WISHERS,….. “the reason someone smiles today”

 ONCE AGAIN MANY THANKS FOR HELPING US  TO SERVE INDIVIDUALS AND FAMILIES IN THE POOREST COMMUNITIES IN SRI LANKA.

A very big thank you to all well-wishers and friends  and our partners  GANDHI ILLA NEW ZEALAND TRUST ,  ROYAL COLLEGE 1980 BATCH TAMIL CLASS OVERSEAS & SRI LANKA  who donated  for this urgent Dry Ration project.

Our underprivileged and vulnerable community back in Sri Lanka still need  our help and Vanni Hope intend to extend this assistance and would like your ongoing support.

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